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Nitrogen as a Gas Additive? It’s Been Done

Shell said its new “nitrogen-enriched” gasoline, introduced recently in all three pump grades, “seeks and destroys” an engine’s carbon deposits, also known as gunk. At least that’s what the ads say.

But nitrogen is not a new additive in detergent gasoline. Chevron, for example, already sells the “nitrogen-enriched Techron additive” to “help keep vital engine parts cleaner than lower-quality competitors” for “a cleaner and happier car.” And some chemistry professors are skeptical that, even if Shell has discovered a new and more effective cleaning molecule, it will usher in a new era of engine longevity.

Jens Mueller-Belau, fuels portfolio and category manager for Shell retail in North America, said that nitrogen was not a new cleaning additive, but he said Shell took it further.

“When we looked into the effectiveness of detergent chemistries, we found a route that enriches the cleaning molecule further with nitrogen and makes it more effective in two ways,” he said. “In conventional engines, we can clean critical engine parts better, and in the new direct-injection engines — which inject fuel directly into the combustion chamber, creating more heat and pressure — we designed our technology to be more thermally stable.”

In test marketing, Mr. Mueller-Belau explained, phrases like “nitrogen-enriched” worked better than something like “smart molecules.”

André L. Boehman, a professor of fuel science, materials science and engineering at Penn State University, said in an e-mail message that nitrogen-based detergents “have been around for some time.” He said that the “nitrogen-enriched” phrase doesn’t say anything to the average person who doesn’t know about the chemistry of additives. “What it says to me, a fuels expert, is, ‘Why did they add more nitrogen, since that generally will increase NOx emissions?’” he said.

Shell denied that adding nitrogen to its fuel would significantly increase nitrogen oxide, or NOx, emissions. “Most nitrogen in vehicular NOx emissions does not come from gasoline,” the company said in an e-mail statement. “The nitrogen is primarily from the incoming air that mixes with gasoline inside an engine. NOx is produced when the nitrogen from the air reacts with oxygen under high engine temperature and pressure conditions.”

George Huber, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who is working to produce gasoline components from biomass, said that added nitrogen “might help your engine run a little cleaner, but I don’t think it will cause a major difference.”

why don’t they take it further and say that this makes your engine cleaner so it will be more efficient, lowering your carbon footprint, making less pollution and thus making you a better, more responsible citizen. I want to buy this so I can feel good about the money I spend on this gas because it helps me be a better person. I love my car and the polar bears. Who will join me?

The carbon deposit is due to insufficient oxygen / incomplete combustion, ‘cos if you have complete combustion what you have will not be carbon deposits or even carbon monoxide but rather carbon dioxide…..that much maligned “carbon” of Greenhouse effect fame and the enemy of Al Gore and all pretentious modern humans.

The reason why superchargers and turbo chargers work is that they send more air in for a more complete combustion and thus a greater energy release.

The way people make charcoal is to reduce oxygen introduced into a combustion chamber (the “kiln”) so that what remains is a carbon deposit……the charcoal.

This marketing stuff only only takes “over-informed” people for a ride.

I think that Ogilvie & Mather had the Shell account when “SHELL, WITH PLATFORMATE” was the campaign in ’65-’67. They would go out to the salt flats and run two identical cars, one with Shell, the other with brand X. On identical quantities of fuel, the car with shell would travel on after the car with brand X sputtered to a stop. The rason give for this superlative performance was PLATFORMATE. It turned out that Platformate was a common item found in all gasoline.
The spots were fun to watch.

Another big lie. Just like using exhaust emissions as a standard for pollutant controls, when the logical person would use average weight hauled per mile in conjunction with exhaust emissions as a true indicator of pollutant levels. Using the standard indicator proves big rig haulers as the most polluting, but using the logical persons indicator proves big rig haulers as the least polluting. Doesn’t take a scientist to figure this out.
Just assume they’re all in it together to reap larger profits every time, and you’ll begin seeing the lies.
The best way to reduce emissions is with a smaller engine running at maximum torque utilizing a complicated transmission system. The engine should be 1/3 the size of the transmission. It DOES take a scientist to figure out that a transmission with more pulleys/ gears actually decreases the weight to load ratio. In fact, a transmission double the size of the engine actually weighs 1/3 the engine. Compared to today’s systems where the automatic transmission weighs ½ that of the engine and utilizes a very narrow torque curve, leaving the throttle to make up the difference.

Similarly, where did the lie about using the accelerator to get out of an accident situation come from? Automakers disseminated it. Do you think a big rig driver would use such and insane method to get out of an accident? Big engines use more fuel, therefore reducing your cash flow, keeping you in a permanent state of co-dependence.

Also, what woman do you know would rather have a poor man with a powerful car as compared to a rich man with a sluggish car? Bill Gates owns a sluggish fuel sipper.
The automakers disseminated this ideal by using sex as the selling point.
Monopolizing on the naivety of generational consumer influx sets these insane ideals.

Are you starting to get the drift?

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